First-world problems

The restaurant Saison in San Francisco, which charges $248 for its 18-course tasting menu, is said by its owners to barely break even. Its staff of 24 serves about 30 dinners a night; expenses include abalone liver at $30 a pound, $560-apiece bowls by a Japanese potter and half a cord of almond wood weekly for its oven. The Wall Street Journal totes it up.